Insuring 17 year old provisional driver on my car insurance

monkeybusiness

My son is 17 and has just started driving lessons. We would like to take him out in our car to give him some extra practice - we have a Ford C-Max with a 1600 engine. Our insurance is currently just over £200 but if I add him on to our policy it shoots up to £1500 ! How do people afford to add on learner drivers to their policies - is there something I don't know. Help - how can I add him on without it costing a fortune ??

ilikewatch

Well, one way would be to take out specialist learner insurance completely seperately to your regular insurance - if this is in your sons name then it won't affect your insurance should he manage to cause any damage, this type of insurance can be surprisingly cheap.

Personally however, I wouldn't bother letting my kids "practice" in my car once they'd started proper lessons. Although it might be useful for them to learn some basics on private land before they start lessons, I think that once they've started paying for professional lessons they should stick with just those to ensure consistency of learning. As a 17 year old I remember passing my test in 8 lessons with no other driving practice, whereas friends who were practising with mum and dad took a year or more to pass.

pogg000

One insurance company in the past when i asked said i could just pay for the weekends as an extra(£30) when i needed the cover.

whatmichaelsays

You're about to learn that 17 year old lads and insurance companies are not a good mix!

You're looking at four figures for whatever car / insurance he manages to get and you should expect the premium to increase further if and when he passes his test.

GRM

I was in a similar situation recently - used a specialised company who provide provisional driver insurance. £70* for a month and will insure him on any car that's group 32 or less and worth less than £20k.

There are quite a few providers, most seemed to charge the same price as each other to within a pound or two.

*after £15 cashback from Quidco.

InsideInsurance

monkeybusiness wrote: »

My son is 17 and has just started driving lessons. We would like to take him out in our car to give him some extra practice - we have a Ford C-Max with a 1600 engine. Our insurance is currently just over £200 but if I add him on to our policy it shoots up to £1500

You are adding him to an existing policy which will be part of the problem. An insurer who is competitive for a 30-40 year old couple on a mid sized family car is unlikely to be the same sort of company that are wanting to take on young learner drivers.

One option is to take a temp policy out whilst he is a learner.

Remember that learners are cheaper to insure than just passed the test drivers so if you think its expensive now, wait until you see how much it is when he's passed

forgotmyname

You think £1500 is bad adding him as a learner. Wait until he passes his test and they want an extra few thousand.

Either change insurer to one that is more learner friendly, Or get them their own learner policy or get them their own car and a learner policy.

I found a policy for about £400 on a Ford KA for my daughter. BUT the policy expires when they pass their test.
And the premium maybe 5x or even 10x more...

I would have felt evil saying congratulations you passed your test, Now you will have to sell your car as you cannot afford to insure it.